A review of the IR imagery reveals the much of the Arctic sea ice in the Beaufort or Chukchi has been fractured or rubble all winter. The ESAS and Laptev have had similar conditions.
I have been calling the Beaufort Gyre, the "Beaufort Blender" this season, given its continual refracturing. Areas south of Banks Island never froze solid this winter, south of Baffin Island has been "rubble."
North of Svalbard fracturing has run close to 90 N many times.
The Arctic Ocean fracturing has often sent plumes of warmer air over the ice till refreeze, which is an indicator of the warmer sea temps under the ice.

There is no shocking news, really. I'm just emulating a way of news reporting as seen in recent months by folks trying to play down the long-term shocking news of Arctic sea ice loss. You know, paid climate science disinformers like Benny Peiser who claimed that the poles aren't melting, twisti...

I don't know what the most interesting forum thread on the planet was last week, but this week it's definitely the Nares Strait thread, over on the Arctic Sea Ice Forum. All who regularly follow Arctic events, know that one of the coolest places in it is Nares Strait, the waterway between Elles...

Another month has passed and so here is the updated Arctic sea ice volume graph as calculated by the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) at the Polar Science Center: As always, (modeled) sea ice volume has also hit its minimum in September: 6810 km3. This number is c...

D/George,
Beaufort Sea ice may appear thicker, however it is highly fractured, which may facilitate warming and melt later in the summer, depending on the weather.
The fracturing pattern after the last few days makes much of it appear like a giant smoothie.

Another month has passed and so here is the updated Arctic sea ice volume graph as calculated by the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) at the Polar Science Center: Last month's tentative conclusion has definitely been confirmed for now: It seems that last year's r...

Another month has passed and so here is the updated Arctic sea ice volume graph as calculated by the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) at the Polar Science Center: During the month of February the gap between this year and the other years from the post-2010 period ...

Apologies Neven, but this needs inserted here to address Bob's question. I'd suggest a read of the National Academy of Sciences:
Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=14682
Here is a hint:
Recommendation 6.3: The intelligence community should establish a system of periodic “stress testing” for countries, regions, and critical global systems regarding their ability to manage potentially disruptive climate events of concern. Stress tests would focus on potentially disruptive conjunctions of climate events and socioeconomic and political conditions.

A new paper in PNAS, called Observational determination of albedo caused by vanishing sea ice, reminds me of scientific work Peter Wadhams published a year and a half ago wherein he showed Arctic ice melt is 'like adding 20 years of CO2 emissions'. He based this assertion on calculations, as ca...

In previous posts it was noted that El Nino will have an impact on warming, and I'd add - likely of CO2 buildup.
METOP IASI globally measured CO2 hit 398 ppm at 945 mb on March 3, 2014, which is 3 ppm above last year on the same date. A lot of areas above 410 ppm. See:
http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/2014/03/global-mean-co2-hits-398-ppm-annual.html

A new paper in PNAS, called Observational determination of albedo caused by vanishing sea ice, reminds me of scientific work Peter Wadhams published a year and a half ago wherein he showed Arctic ice melt is 'like adding 20 years of CO2 emissions'. He based this assertion on calculations, as ca...

Jennifer Francis presented a paper at the AAAS in Chicago on Arctic warming and Rossby Waves. I have commented, plus added in another study of the current jet stream patterns.
See: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/2014/02/meandering-jet-streams-jennifer-francis.html

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

I decided to blog on this point in the season, for sea ice area and extent. The warmth looks set to continue for a couple of weeks.
I added in some sea ice thickness comparison's as well. I am beginning to think that if the warmth of the last couple of years returns to the Beaufort, we will see major melting of the newer multi-year sea ice.
See: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/

Another month has passed, but this time there is more than just a data update. It seems the whole PIOMAS version 2.0 has been upgraded to 2.1. As it says on the Polar Science Center website: We identified a programming error in a routine that interpolates ice concentration data prior to assimil...

There is more weather weirdness coming for the US Northwest. We have a "Pineapple Express" setting up that will dump rain, snow and wind across the Northwest US for the next 10 days.
I've blogged on it here:
http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

You all are welcome, my curiosity got me going, and I posted what I discovered.
in regard to the comments on the polar vortex and jet stream, it is mangled at lower altitudes, from 250 mb lower. Above that it has been stronger.
See my post: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/2014/02/bi-polar-quadri-polar-and-meandering.html

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

The UK MET has issued comments and a report on the UK weather extremes. It includes a clear link between the jet streams, Rossby waves and the unusual Polar vortex.
See: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

After this 2012 blog post on Arctic pollution, it's time to return to the subject, if only because Arctic sea ice is proving to be a significant factor in changes in atmospheric chemistry, leading to increases in mercury concentrations in the Arctic. This happens through sea ice melting during s...

More weird extremes on the way this week.
According to the GFS models, we should expect a major Siberian Express across the CAB and into North America, triggering precipitation in Northern CA, and also a major storm on the US east coast next weekend.
The link is: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

I decided that we needed a comparison of the temp anomalies for a couple of dates (January 27 and January 25),from prior years to give some perspective.
See: http://a4rglobalmethanetracking.blogspot.com/

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

There has been some stuff in the past 2 months that could be linked to erratic jet stream behaviour - which in turn could be influenced by Arctic sea ice loss - like a series of storms battering Europe's Northwest, such as the St. Jude storm at the end of October, followed in December by Xaver, ...

Hi Colorado Bob,
Those readings are there, however, the reading that Sam uses to locate sources are 7,500-9,200 ft ASL and may reflect smoke, soot and refreezing.
If one was interested in surface discharge of methane hydrates - that would be at the 1000-918 mb or sea level to about 2,700 ASL.
When one uses methanetracker for those periods (10-28 to 10-31, the areas above 1950 ppb are more clustered around Svalbard, Franz Joseph Islands, and Novaya Zemlya - not the Laptev Sea.

It's the most interesting and actual of all potential risks tied to Arctic sea ice loss and could turn out to be one of the surest signs of changing weather patterns. Which explains the growth in interest and research. One of the latest scientific papers on this subject, Influence of Arctic sea...

An excellent article in today's Guardian on the recent research supporting potential large releases of CH4 in the Arctic.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/05/7-facts-need-to-know-arctic-methane-time-bomb

While keeping an eye on day-to-day data and speculating about whether 2013 is going to overcome the odds and break last year's records, one tends to forget about the wider implications and what this actually is all about. A tree is incredibly interesting, but in the end it's all about the fore...

The high temperatures and fires in Siberia and North America are beginning to increase CH4 levels in the upper troposphere. See the new images from the METOP 2 IASI satellite I posted in the ASIF permafrost section.
http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/board,20.0.html
Concentrations at some layers are as high as 2276 ppb CH4.

While keeping an eye on day-to-day data and speculating about whether 2013 is going to overcome the odds and break last year's records, one tends to forget about the wider implications and what this actually is all about. A tree is incredibly interesting, but in the end it's all about the fore...

While keeping an eye on day-to-day data and speculating about whether 2013 is going to overcome the odds and break last year's records, one tends to forget about the wider implications and what this actually is all about. A tree is incredibly interesting, but in the end it's all about the fore...

To help monitor current and future emissions from the beginning of 2013, methanetracker.org has added a new set of reports that breakdown methane averages between three ranges 1750-1850, 1850-1950 and 1950+ ppb on a global basis.
Currently the forest fires in Siberia, Canada and Alaska are quite apparent.
Please register and have an opportunity to track changes as we go through the rest of the melt season and into the fall, methane release in the Arctic Ocean becomes more apparent.

While keeping an eye on day-to-day data and speculating about whether 2013 is going to overcome the odds and break last year's records, one tends to forget about the wider implications and what this actually is all about. A tree is incredibly interesting, but in the end it's all about the fore...

dorlomin,
What are the consequences of Vergent's post of the 800000 CO2 and CH4 levels in prior glaciation periods compared to today's readings?
If there is a null hypothesis, would it not be reasonable to assume that CO2 readings that are 25% higher that the last maximum, (400 ppm vs 320 ppm) and CH4 readings that are 260% higher (18800ppbv vs 700 ppbv) than the prior ice core readings, represent an undeniable shift from the long term cycles, and leave us open to a new climate warming state and process?
No matter human or clathrate sources, it is there and it is real, and climate science says both gases create warming, which we are yet to experience the full effects.
This is beyond winters.... and what I showed is apparent at a number of points in the change in annual cycles.
You did not explain the change in the methane readings...from 2002 to 2012 nor what the impacts will be,
I am awaiting an answer.

While keeping an eye on day-to-day data and speculating about whether 2013 is going to overcome the odds and break last year's records, one tends to forget about the wider implications and what this actually is all about. A tree is incredibly interesting, but in the end it's all about the fore...